Holy progress batman!

We stopped by our homesite on the way back from our midwife appointment, which btw..

..we were pleasantly surprised with how much had been done when we peeked inside the house!

Our pest control system has been installed!

Our air conditioner is in!

Water heater is in!

Tile went down!

Cabinets are up! (don't mind the ugly laminate, they don't offer an upgrade so once we close we're installing Quartz or Granite)

All of our light fixtures were up as well!

Next up: Carpets. Unsure if bathroom fixtures are in although considering the kitchen cabinets are up, I'm sure the bathrooms are too; we couldn't walk in because the tile was setting. Fence and sod and DONE

So three more weeks and we close :) SO exciting!

20 minute stir fry.

i have no clue why i haven't blogged this recipe earlier considering i make this EVERY.WEEK.

20 minute stir fry

ingredients:

enough rice for however many people you're feeding (1/2c pp)

1 can (organic) cut green beans drained

1 can (organic) whole kernel corn

1 can (organic) cut carrots

1 cup (organic) frozen/fresh edamame

1 cup (organic) frozen/fresh broccoli

*i always use organic, but you don't HAVE to.

dump rice in rice cooker (if you don't have one of these, GET ONE! It will save you SO much time and the rice always comes out PERFECT)

cover with water, water should come up just a bit over the rice. splash of evoo and a tsp of salt, mix. close lid and press cook.

while that is cooking, spray a large pan or wok with non stick spray.

if you're using any frozen veggies, toss them in a bowl of water and microwave for 1 minute. drain water.

toss all veggies in the pan and cook for 10 minutes, cover with enough soy sauce to coat and let it reduce for 5 minutes.

Pour veggies over the rice. DONE.

Serve with spring rolls, or teriyaki glazed tofu (or chicken for you meat eaters, which is what my husband does)

10 minute teriyaki glazed [enter protein here]

cut tofu [or animal protein if you're into that sorta thing] into thin strips

spray pan with non-stick

toss in pan and cook until brown

cover in teriyaki glaze/sauce and turn off heat.

EAT!

vegan fettuccine alfredo

[not the best picture, I was out of natural light and it was taken with my iPhone]

16oz box of fettuccine noodles

1/2 bag of "mozzarella" Daiya Cheese Shreds

2 tablespoons vegan grated parmesan topping or nutritional yeast

2 tablespoons Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese

3 tablespoons of vegan butter (I use Earth Balance because it kicks ass)

3 tablespoons of cornmeal (I don't measure.. I just kinda eyeballed it)

1 cup of unsweetened or original soy/rice/milk substitute

1 clove of garlic (or 1tsp of minced)

garlic salt

italian seasoning

Salt and oil water, boil pasta until al dente.

In a small pot or sauce pan (on medium heat) melt the vegan butter, toss in some garlic salt, italian seasoning and the garlic. Heat until you can smell the garlic.

Shake in about 3 tablespoons of cornmeal (remember, I eyeball so I can't be sure) and stir until combined.

Add the parm topping/nutritional yeast and mix.

Stir in the cup of soymilk, and stir continuously until it just begins to boil. Lower heat and stir for another minute, add in the Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream and stir until melted. Toss in the Daiya Cheese, mix until combined.

Drain pasta and put it back in it's pot, pour alfredo over the pasta, mix and enjoy!

Top with broccoli, asparagus, or vegan chik'n and a bit more parm topping.

This was a last minute meal option. We hadn't considered what to make for dinner and I decided it was time to try and make an easy alfredo. Everything took about 20mins tops. It was REALLY good and hit the spot.

wordless wednesday: three long weeks.

[next monday my husband leaves for d.c., he returns friday only to turn around and leave for two weeks in afghanistan that sunday. this is going to be hard.]

little miss muffet.

...minus that whole eating curds and whey bit. bleh!

this morning while walking the dogs I was frightened by this BEAST of a spider in a giant web out by our entrance gate. At first I was honestly terrified and wanted DH to murder it. Hey, I'm a vegan not a saint. After Deacon and Phoebe handled their business, I ran inside and grabbed my DSC T-3oo (which I'd LOVE to upgrade soon to this baby.. hope you're reading honey!)

DON'T CLICK IF YOU FREAK OUT EASILY

After examining the spider and Googling spider identifications, I found out it was a St. Andrew's Cross spider. Pretty much harmless. WHEW! I'm hoping no one else comes across it and decides to harm her.

Well that was unexpected!

Our closing date got bumped up to the 17th of September from the 30th :D Unfortunately DH will be in Afghanistan on the 17th, so we have to move it to the 20th. It's nice to have that breathing room though, now we can officially be out of our apartment before the 1st of October. I'll be taking pictures tomorrow night of the building progress :)

House!

Friday after work the Mr. decided to head over to our home site to take photos. He wandered around inside and WOW they've done a lot in 10 days. The next morning we went back and they were finishing up the brick and working on the inside a bit more. SO EXCITING!

Pictures!

I can't wait until it's complete and we can finally move out of this cramped apartment.

Strike one.

Considering my goal in life is to become a CNM (certified nurse-midwife), having a homebirth or birthing in a center is extremely important to me when thinking about my future pregnancy. Having heard many horror stories about unnecessary interventions while in hospitals, I started looking for a midwife the second the Mr. and I decided to TTC. Being new to Texas, I am happy to have a friend with the same mindset. I made an appointment at a birthing center not so far from where we live, it also happened to be close to said friend so she wanted to come too. She'd read that this particular birthing center offered the choice of VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) which is what she was looking for. Her story is not mine to tell, but feel free to hop over to her blog and read her point of view.

Walking in was like a breath of fresh air. It was so homey and welcoming, albeit slightly dated. We'd gotten there 10mins early and were asked to take a seat. We sat, talked, and were entertained by the awesomeness that is an adventurous 16 month old. They were busy, I totally understand that.. but it felt like an eternity of waiting. Cue gorgeous mother walking into the center. Tall, thin, everything I wanted to be. Well, the height I can't really do anything about, I will be 4'11" forever.. or at least until I start shrinking when I'm old. I thought about just excusing ourselves and scheduling to meet another day, but just then a woman came up to us. She looked like the wicked witch minus the green face paint. I'm not being mean, I'm being honest. She did. She seemed cold and distant, probably because her mind was on the mother about to pop. She asked if we had any questions, being put on the spot I hadn't really considered anything. I'd read up on their website and had plenty of knowledge on the subject already (HELLO, I wouldn't choose this as my profession without doing research first) Miss Lauren asked about VBACs and the woman's answer was "no we don't do them anymore, although I wish we did." My eardrums ruptured as I could hear my new friend's heart breaking. Why WISH you could do something?! Why not just DO it, I understand the risks involved but the risks of a repeat cesarean are MUCH higher. She rushed us through a tour of the facility rooms decked in grandma's hand me downs, handed me a card and sent us on our way.

We huffed and puffed a bit in the car, went home and watched The Business of Being Born where we both got teary eyed and indulged in vegan brownies.

Wordless Wednesday: they love each other

sometimes..




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

AMAZING taco soup

i hadn't planned on what to make for dinner, when i decided to follow @ieattrees on twitter.. and lurked her blog.

OHMYDROOL.

i saw something i've been wanting to make FOREVER, super easy.. like sauté some onions and dump 5 cans of stuff in a pot easy. i had everything in my pantry except the taco seasoning, so i had DH drop by the store on his way home and pick some up. he was amazing and grabbed my favorite multigrain tortilla chips while he was there as well.

• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1 15 1/2 oz. can dark red kidney beans, not drained
• 1 15 1/2 oz. can pinto beans, not drained
• 1 15 1/2 oz. can corn, drained
• 1 14 1/2 oz. can tomatoes w/chilis, not drained -i sub'd diced tomatoes/cilantro/lime because DH can't handle spice
• 1 14 1/2 oz. can diced tomatoes, not drained
• 1 package taco seasoning mix

in a large pot saute the onions in a little bit of oil or cooking spray until translucent (i tossed in a tad of garlic as well). dump the other ingredients in the pot and cook covered for an hour, or uncovered for thicker soup.

it was AMAZING. i will make this weekly kind of amazing. i topped it with steamed rice (hello rice cooker!) and half a small avocado :]

so.fucking.awesome.

new addition! [belated wordless wednesday]

Meet Phoebe Love!

its been awhile.

sorry guys, i just haven't really had much to blog about. although, i totally got over a foot cut off my hair yesterday with Lauren over at mommy is rocknroll! Her hair is highlighter pink and we both look schmexy! i was hyperventilating when my stylist pulled my locks into a pony tail and snipped. eep! three years of hair. gone in one second. it feels SO much healthier :) i'm quite happy with it. now for hair porn:

oh and those are my new, totally adorable glasses